Wet weather washes out fashion sales

THE wettest April on record dampened demand for summer fashion as retailers suffered their biggest sales falls for more than a year, figures revealed today. Like-for-like sales dropped a “disappointing” 3.3 per cent - the worst performance since March 2011 - driven by “substantial” falls for clothes retailers and the worst footwear trading since January 2008, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said. The trend was made worse because many shoppers had already splurged on summerwear in March’s heatwave, while the period was up against tough comparatives with the previous year when hot weather and the Royal Wedding boosted sales of partywear and food.